Transparent swimming invert..

One for Leslie, again. A bad photo, but the only one I have. This was in Lembeh, sand area, and it was about 3" in length, swimming in the water column after taking off from the sand.

Would appreciate any clues!

I'm not sure but suspect it's one of the flattened ctenophores, either Cestum or Velamen, commonly known as Venus's Girdle. Check out these links & tell me what you think.

http://jellieszone.com/velamen.htm

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~kmitoh/seibutu/kura...e/obikurage.jpg

http://www.bonairediving.com/richter/20020...sGirdle_jpg.htm

http://digilander.libero.it/scubabob/TC/venus.html

It's hard to tell, but it looks closest to Velamen, perhaps a small one. The right end of mine looks different, but could have been damaged. The described defense response was very apt! (I swear I didn't touch it!!)

Thanks for checking this one out...

I think it looks more like a moray eel post larvae. Sort of half way between a leptocephalus and a settling juvenile?

But then I am usually wrong on these ID forums!

Alex

I think Alex is right, I did extensive larval collections with light traps around the Caribbean, and that's exactly how the late stage leptocephalus look like. Sorry I didn't look in this thread before, as my knowledge is limited on inverts and the title kept me out...

Luiz

What, a vert???

Well, I thought the right side looked a bit like a face, but I couldn't tell if that was an eye or just some debris. And it really does look similar to the photos that Leslie pointed to.

Sorry for misleading you all!

Hi Linda, take a look at these photos of leptocephalus larvae:

http://www.mbari.org/staff/kraskoff/Atlantic/thlepto1.jpg

http://www.biol.lu.se/zoofysiol/Svar/Bilde...ptocephalus.jpg

http://www.fish.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/fish/kyou...beta/lept72.jpg

I think Alex is right, I did extensive larval collections with light traps around the Caribbean, and that's exactly how the late stage leptocephalus look like. Sorry I didn't look in this thread before, as my knowledge is limited on inverts and the title kept me out...

Luiz

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And I'm limited to inverts so eel larvae never would have occurred to me. Thanks, guys!

Wow, A 3" Larvae? I'm intrigued. Do you have any suggested reading Luiz?

Hi William, yes, leptocephali are very unusual among larval fish, they grow very large and spend a lot of time in the plankton (months to even years, as opposed to a few weeks in most fish). The largest recorded leptocephalus was almost 2 meters long! Here is a site with some light reading:

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfact...h/leptoceph.htm

Luiz

Now this is very interesting, I've been lurking around this forum, just amazed at what's in the deep.